It's all about the moment...it really is...

I saw this poster today and thought how apt it was for Dominica and my kids especially. What a week of 'moments' they have had. In the spirit of 'life' school, I took my children off for a day to go to the beach with friends and their Grandma who is here only briefly. Where else in the world could you do this so easily and spend the day on a deserted beach with a rope swing to keep you happy for hours. A day or two later this was followed by a beach bar, fun playing on the rocks, chilling round a table, whilst being engulfed almost by the most amazing and constantly changing sunset. To finish it all off another day another adventure involving fantastic local food. No requests for burger and chips from my lot - lobster all round please. Will it be these 'moments' they remember? Wow, I really do hope so.

Be the first

So, here I am commenting on my queueing dilemma here but when we're given the chance to be first/the only one, then we don't feel 100% confident with that either. The last few days we have been to several places where no-one appears immediately visible. As Brits I think we do have a bit of a sheep mentality though - let's meekly follow where we see others as we don't want to stand out. Well there's no chance of merging into the background here - C,S & O really don't fall into the 'seen but not heard' category for a start....Here, it seems that one minute a place can appear closed and boarded up but within half an hour it's rocking. The Purple Turtle for instance was like that - the others went off to the sea and I stood patiently in the bar that was v.definitely closed thinking somebody will come along soon. Sure enough, Roy (easy name to remember) did and said give him 5 minutes to set up. By the time we left there was even a coach (ok mini bus) party there in full swing. Yesterday, we stopped for a sundowner at an hotel in Castle Comfort - you could hear a pin drop in the bar but I made Andy sit down and wait patiently, chill and enjoy the view. When we left Scarlett had got a nice little audience going with her taming a lizard party trick. Yes, she picks them up by the tail and they then seem to bond fairly well and I just cringe hoping she's not going to come anywhere near me whilst encouragingly saying, 'see, there's nothing to be afraid of' to the other two....

First swim

I'm fairly organised with the children (ie. lugging around a large bag containing several just in case items) but I think relaxed environment mode is taking over - yesterday we drove up to Portsmouth and took nothing except our swimmers and suntan lotion. We stopped at the Purple Turtle Beachclub. The beachclub bit meant I could hire a sunlounger under a palm tree, fab. The beach is lovely, the sea calm and the children loved it. They spent a fair bit of time making sand/recycling (the Belgium influence) art with bottle tops, flowers, seashells etc - they then insisted we phototgraph them separately next to their individual creations. (Who needs a DS Lite I ask myself). We stayed 5 hours and then made our way back via Connie's bar at Mero. One rum punch and a rum & coke later we were on our way back home. I'd floated in the sea, closed my eyes and for the first time in ages, thought of absolutely nothing. Bliss.